CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER IN THE MARCHE
Christmas has a magical atmosphere of lights, gifts and delicious food is coming. In the Marche, the Christmas Eve dinner is made of low-fat dishes: pasta, fish and vegetables. In a lot of families, the low-fat spaghetti with a sauce of tomato and anchovies represent a tradition. Also, stoccafisso all’anconetana is very common, served with tomatoes and stewed potatoes. Some people also eat pescatrice alla marchigiana and fish brodetto.
CHRISTMAS LUNCH
For Christmas lunch in each area of the Marche people use to prepare aperitifs with fossa cheese and boar skewers, truffle and olives bruschetta. The main course changes depending on the part of the region and is very rich and traditional, such as:
–cappelletti in brodo di cappone, filled with turkey and pig roasted meat;
–vincisgrassi, a special lasagna with parmesan cheese, besciamella and ragù of mixed meat;
–maccheroncini di Campofilone with tomato sauce.
As second plate people usually eat roasted capon, a tasty dish, simple or with truffle. The pollo in potacchio is another delicious food from Marche.
TRADITIONAL SWEETS FROM THE MARCHE REGION
Each city has its own special sweets.
One of the most famous sweets in the province of Macerata and in other places its the pizza di Natale, always present during the festive days on our tables. It’s been prepared using walnuts, raisin, dried figs and bread dough. Another famous sweet is the cavallucci, whose name is connected to the similarity to horse legs. These delicious sweets are typical from Cingoli and Apiro cities but common also in other places; they are energy concentrated because of their filling: “sapa” from must, jam, chocolate, raisin, almonds, hazelnuts, pine seeds, coffee, candied fruits, liquors.
The frustingo or “fristingo, frostengo, pistinfo, bostrengo” changes name according to the province. It’s one of the more ancient sweets of our tradition. Some people say that more than two thousand years ago the ancient Piceni inherited the original receipt from Etruscan. In the origin it was a daily consumed sweet (not only during Christmas time), mixing a raisin juice with different flours: spelt, barley, durum wheat; then cooked in clay pitchers.